badlands
by Aiko Isari
Summary: You don't live in Orre without giving a little of yourself away. Colosseum.
1. Part One

_Warning for death, sacrifices, implied violence, religious implications_

* * *

Part One

In every region, there was a guardian of the land, at least one who watches over the earth with fickle and curious eyes. With them, there was always at least one fool family who decided to serve it in some way.

For the Orre region, as far as Wes knew, that family was his. The nameless dowsers who chanted for water and greenery. They were supposedly the reason that any soft earth remained on the ground at all. Hence why he sat in these stone walls and prayed. His head bowed to the floor, facing the one window and the light growing in the sky. He hummed a singular, deep note that sank into the walls and seeped out and free. He clasped his dark hands together in slow claps until his palms stung.

"I offer to you nourishment," he said to the room.

Two meows resounded from the opposing corners. Wes willed his lips into a thin line.

"Unto you, I offer you prayer. I offer blood from the time of old."

Beneath the metal of the base, down in the waterworks, something started to beep. Nothing was down there of course, so it was safe from security for the moment. But, moments pass, and when that moment passed, there was a very loud explosion.

Wes pulled himself to his bare feet. "I offer you flesh scorched in the fire. I offer death for life. I offer life for creation. I ask for new songs to cover your land, for the water to warm itself. I ask for your forgiveness to your peasant whose duty has been shirked."

His cats mewed again, leaving a silence that contained itself to this room alone.

Then, Wes opened his eyes and went to his bedside. "Let's go."

Nocturne and Requiem chirruped agreement and helped him dress.

(Of course, Wes left with a parting gift. He wouldn't be Wes if he didn't steal something.)

* * *

"Breaking news, the hideout of Team Snagem was brutalized from the inside. International authorities arrived there to team members still cleaning up a mess of water and shrapnel. Investigators believe the base was situated underneath a well of groundwater beneath a vol-"

"It sounds like whoever did that got a bounty."

The girl brushed her pinky over her spoon of murky broth. It wasn't the most edible thing in the world, or at least not the best tasting. However, to say so, to hint so, might give her away. She couldn't risk it so far out into the desert. Taking great care for her hood, the young woman swallowed as much from the bowl as she could without gagging. It gave her an excuse to listen in on the two behind her. One of them slammed their mug down with a scoff.

"They should be giving the fool a bloody reward for that!" Their voice was hoarse with the remains of a smoke. "They're gonna be hunted across the desert for Giratina's sake. Might as well get somethin' nice before they die."

"Snag'em ain't that tough," grumbled the second. "They lose half the shit they steal after payin' right?"

"Means it's the client's fault, don' it?"

She took another swallow of soup as the door to the dilapidated train car opened up. Soft boot thuds met her ears. She ignored it at first, even when she heard the faint voice making orders. Then the quiet boots made their way over to her.

"Could I sit here?"

She looked up, red bangs falling over her eyes. She saw dark skin, white hair-

Celebi-blessed-

Amber eyes that seemed to be entirely in another world even… She nodded slowly, taking her final swallow of soup. The boy nodded and sat on her other side, a cup of tea in hand. As he set it down, something leaped into her lap. She didn't jump, especially as it purred like a glameow.

"Sorry." She followed the voice, noted the wry smile. "He likes attention very much."

The young woman quirked an eyebrow and nodded. "Implies spoiling."

"Happiness equals spoiling," countered the occupant.

She laughed at the sage gospel. "Truth in that." She played with her spoon, watching his gaze on her. "Something on my face?"

"Light skin." He scratched something in his lap, likely something equally as needy and furry. "Hood's too new."

She nodded absently. "Aye. You caught me." She gave in and pet the other pokemon further. "Supposed to be a sandstorm of the ages for the next few days. Rather be in here than nowhere you know."

"Aye." The agreement came out scratchy and worn. "The Desert is supposed to sing… are you hunting for a catch?"

"I wouldn't go so far as the queen," she replied and slowly the redhead popped her own pokeballs on the table. "But a fresh flier I won't say no to. Torn off by the tides and the idiots."

Something in his posture relaxed. "Ah." He held out his hand. It smelled of red clay and smoke deep in the leather of the gloves. "Wes. Of Terrarium."

She paused and then smiled. "Rui. Of Agate and Pallet."

Wes bowed his head as if everything was a mystery that had been solved. Rui almost laughed out loud.

The cashier walked over to them then, handing Wes a great blue box. "Will that do, kiddo?" His voice sounded as dusty as some of the potions in that box. The purple fox hissed at him at the thump.

"Perfect."He pulled out tinted purple bills and passed them over. Rui stopped the man and made her own purchases. All the while, her ball trembled on the table. Wes watched her ignore it.

Soon night fell. With it came the rattling of the windows and the disgruntled leaving of the seemingly familiar drunken fools. The television went on overhead.

Then, seemingly from nowhere, the air began to sing.

Rui smiled. Her theory so far had been proven correct.

Then the song was cut off with a scream.

The two teens were up together before they realized what they were doing.

A thief crossed paths with a mysterious young woman. That was always how the story started. If only the two knew the depths of what they plunged into.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello! So I've always been fascinated with Orre. It's legit the edgy teenager of Pokemon even now, and I've always thought, well, what can I do here? So I've got a few ideas, and I'm hoping I'll get everyone to enjoy them as much as possible. At any rate, we'll be keeping this at a steadily rated T for the time being. At any rate, not to talk your eyes off, please leave a review! It means a lot!

Challenges: Small Multichap Comp (PFC), Alphabet Prompts (1. aurora), Novella Masterclass Games list, Season Remix


	2. Part Two

_Warning for harm to minors, slightly non-canon typical violence, for prompt 2 - battalion_

* * *

Part Two

Wes knew the song from years of wandering. From sand dune to sand dune, the song of the storm echoed long, harmonized with another, rougher buzzing. It was distorted now, weakened by the horrible screaming moan of the injured creature. The harmonizing buzz, however, was growing. It swelled with a chorus of rage.

Wes bolted to his motorbike, Nocturne and Requiem on his heels. To his surprise, Rui of Two Towns (he forever would consider her that now) was following apace. "Can I borrow a ride?" She asked, seeming to easily keep pace with his fast, long strides.

Wes grunted, thinking it over and watching the pokeballs at her belt. They were the still that came from patience and practice. They were calm in the face of a possible rabid flygon.

Interesting.

Wes hopped on his bike and smirked. "Only if you can handle the fur.

She smirked right back. "Let's do it." She settled in with the ease of someone who would be daring enough to ride sidesaddle on a motorcycle at any other time.

Wes grinned as he climbed on. Nocturne and Requiem leaped into her lap the second she settled in, causing him to roll his eyes. "Traitors to my cause," he murmured, lips quirking up despite himself.

Rui let out a giggle and held on to the seat. With an answering roar, the old bike belched smoke and rode forward into the shifting sands. As they drove towards the source, Rei called over the sputtering engine. "This thing safe?"

"Safer than you or me for sure," Wes called back, adjusting his goggles. "That's a Flygon over there! Do you have an ice type? That's our easiest option!"

She paused. "I have one but we very well might lose it in here! They're not good with this kind of weather!"

Wes nodded, turning this over. "Want to try anyway?"

For a moment, she almost seemed to bare her teeth. Then her teeth were a smile once more. "I have nothing to lose!" She tossed the ball in her hands. "We'll need to get closer."

"Noted!" He pressed a little more weight onto the gas pedal and with a grunting wheeze from the engine and a nasty plume of smoke, they were positively screaming across the sand. "Requiem," he continued, just over the roar of the engine. "Get ready." The espeon stretched in their companion's lap. "Now, Return!"

Requiem let out an open note of heartsong, Nocturne joining her with a harmony of her own. Rui didn't wince as their paws and claws dug into her pants. Instead, she turned to her pokeballs, pulling out another two.

"Let's try something in the meantime," she mused to herself, tossing them both. "Amelia, Zeno, sniff out!"

Within seconds of releasing both pokeballs, a yellow mouse and a white bird shot into the air.

Wes caught his jaw before it dropped. THen he looked accusingly in Rui's direction. She shrugged. "You didn't ask for a fairy type!"

… Oh, she was getting roasted for that one as soon as they got to a safe town. "Fair. Nocturne, repeat! Requiem, gaze ahead!"

Both obeyed his commands, not even wavering as he swerved the bike in an ungainly turn. To his delight, Rui did shriek in the dark. Good.

A swirl of sand snapped into the motorcycle. Wes slammed heavily on the gas pedal, but it did nothing as it jerked to a halt then flew up. Requiem glowed pink and forced the motorcycle back down. It sputtered in dismay. Wes bolted out of it, just in case. Rui was right behind him.

"Never mind," she managed to wheeze. "I was thinking about trusting you to be my ride."

He snorted at her as two men in biker jackets came running through the sand. The guy had the strangest taste in headwear. Perhaps it was a modern thing for this age. Wes, isolated from the growth of anything that wasn't thievery and survival, had no idea what fashion was. Judging by the look on Rui's face, it was anything but that.

"Eh!" said the first male. "I thought we'd be alone out here! The boss said we would! No one hunts a flygon, aye! Whaddaya you brats want?"

" To murder your mouth," Wes muttered before he could stop himself. He glanced at Rui. "Go after that pokemon. See if you can lead it to me."

Rui hesitated, looking at him and the two goons of whoever these idiots were. He's smaller, though stockier, his eyes reminding her of her father's, sparkling with promise in the pupils. She nodded, turning about and chasing the sound of her partners fighting. Lead it to him so he can do… whatever he's planning.

The second idiot laughed and didn't even bother to run after her. "We already caught that thing, ya fool! You're giving a pretty girl a death wish, aye?"

Wes smiled and slid his sunglasses back over his eyes. "Oh, unto you I offer conquest," he said without a stutter and Requiem's body exploded with light to meet their pokemon.

Lombre waved its wide flippers and met a roughshod takedown. Nocturne skidded back, dancing to the side of a whismur. The stocky pokemon stumbled, then opened its mouth wide to sob.

"Choke it!" Wes snapped out and Requiem's eyes glowed purple, lifting the whimsur up and snapping it back to the ground once, then twice in harsh succession.

The sand shifted ahead and We ducked behind his motorcycle, rolling to the side from one of the men's wild fists. He lashed out without thinking, elbow driving into the enemy nose with a crack. He shrieked and fell away, scrambling away from Wes in the dirt. Wes grimaced in pain. He wasn't going to be able to do that again.

A loud, awful scream came from the direction Rei had come from. Wes made himself relax. He didn't even know the girl. He would like her to succeed for the sake of the plan though. Just a thought.

"Requiem, Nocturne, swap!"

Dual Double-Edge threw both opponents into the dirt. Wes glanced at his partners and they retreated to rest by his legs. Both panted, and panted hard. They had to be exhausted, having to help him through the breakout, no matter how much he had tried to do it all himself.

The Lombre threw water at them, scalding even in the air. Wes dropped, rolling them to his chest. He dropped Nocturne first. "We need to make them croak first," he whispered to Nocturne. The umbreon nodded and bunched up on all fours.

"Bear with it Requiem," he whispered to his Espeon. He nodded, eyes beginning to glow once more.

Wes scuffed his boots into the sand and held a pokeball in the hand around his snag machine as a Hyper Voice rang across the desert sand.

Rui had better hurry.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_**... eheh, did I mention this was an AU? No? oops. Sorry. It is. Please drop a review, it really helps me out as a writer.


	3. Part Three

_for the prompt - crevice_

* * *

Part Three

The fight exploded.

In a desert area, this wasn't hard. Sand kicked up easily and people lost their footing. What mattered was that Wes, in the middle of calling a blow,, had nearly gotten hit by a dragon pulse. Requiem's protect threw him to the ground. Fortunately, the other trainers were knocked over too, their pokemon sent sprawling at the dragon's mighty roar.

"Wes!" Rui's voice came from a few feet away, just strong enough to shout. "It's injured on its left side! Get it, quick!"

Wes reflexively lunged for a pokeball, mind racing as he looked at the flygon to set it in his sights. He pushed himself up, arms and legs screaming. "Nocturne, cover!"

As his trusty Umbreon found the strength to pick up sand, Wes fumbled to expand the small sphere. A young, likely freshly evolved flygon easily outranked his eons. Catching to attempt one as it flailed in the sky, failing to dodge the dancing white form of the togekiss, in a pokeball no less, was tantamount to a death wish.

Still, he took aim with it, expanding the tiny sphere. He threw, watching it glow white and eclipse the shadowy behemoth for an instant. Then it shattered into thousands of miniscule pieces and it burst out, staring at him through its eye covers.

Wes swallowed and threw another. As he did, Rui skidded beside him, her two pokemon panting in exhaustion much like his own.

"First one escaped," she wheezed. "Something is wrong with this one. It has an aura all black and purple, like curse smoke that Lavender fights in exorcism."

Wes knew nothing of either of those things and only nodded along. The ball exploded again. "We need a Moonblast. Or something." His right arm vibrated with pain and he looked down at the Snag Machine. Shit, that thing was hot. He resisted the urge to wrench it off and the pokebBall in his hand began to glow.

"Or convenient power up," Rui said.

Wes grimaced. "Or that." He hated those. That was for childish tv shows.

Regardless, he had no choice. He threw.

This time, the ball managed to hit the ground, vibrating like a massage chair. Its soft click rang with finality.

From across the sand, one of the punks shouted, "Oi, that was my pokemon, you bleedin-"

Wes didn't wait to hear the rest of it, nor did he really give a damn. Requiem threw the ball into his hand and they, Rui in tow, made it back to his upturned motorbike.

The third miracle of the day was that it started with only a plume of smoke.

Wes drove the hell out of there, only taking his hands off the handlebars for one thing.

"I give thanks," he remembered to utter and the feeling of a gleeful lick of flames touched his skin beneath his clothes for the first time in years.

The wind sang in his heart but that wasn't enough to make Wes turn around.

* * *

Pyrite Town was a waste of space. Layman's terms would put it some other way, but seeing as Requiem could read his thoughts, Wes had been making a concentrated effort not to swear as often over the past few months.

Wes pulled his bike to hide it in the shadows of some boxes. There was one guy he could trust to give it an examination, and the jerk went to bed at eight o'clock on the dot every night. He was long since sure they were way past that.

"C'mon," he said with a grimace. "Gotta hide here with the criminals."

"I'm pretty sure we are considered criminals now," Rui said dryly, her red hair damp with sweat and her pokeballs still in her hands. "Considering you just stole that guy's pokemon like a cookie out of a jar." She bought a single room without a lick of fanfare and Wes sent a silent prayer of gratitude to anyone who listened to those.

"I wasn't trying." She didn't sound judgemental, but that didn't matter. Once people saw someone be a thief, they never forgot that was what they were. Nothing changed that. Nothing but martyrdom or something.

"Well obviously," Rui replied breezily, looking away from him as she set her own pokeballs on the healing machine. Then Rui of Two Towns looked back over, sitting on the bed. "That machine was what did it. And that flunky didn't say that flygon was his until that last second did he? Manipulative little snot."

A rush of warmth filled his chest and that warmth made him look down and say, "Well I've… stolen before." So many times and he was willing to do it again and again if it kept him alive.

Rui only continued to look at him. "Kinda figured," she admitted after a few minutes. "You were more surprised that it happened, not that he said that."

Wes nodded, working his jaw. His defensive anger had cooled and a rush of concern filled him next. He turned to the window. "It's early," he murmured. "I should pray before I go to sleep." He was so tired he almost didn't want to.

"Shouldn't you pray after you wake up?" Rui shrugged her shoulders o crack them as she got up. "That's what I do at home. I give thanks for waking up."

Wes only smiled. "I am giving thanks for being able to sleep in a bed and not with the sand lions."

Rui's eyes widened and then softened with a strange gleam. It was almost like pride. "Show me."

Wes smiled himself and did so.

The sun had risen fully by the tie they were done, but they went to bed anyway, closing the light stealing curtains. There was a Togekiss armed to the teeth ready to protect them after all if something tried for revenge in the middle of the day.

Rui fell asleep almost immediately, her breathing soft and even with relief. Or maybe the adrenaline just hadn't run off for him. Either could be the case.

Wes rolled onto his back, eyes fastening on where his pokeballs slept in the steady glow of the healing machine. That flygon had been owned by someone and had rampaged like an abandoned feral. Or even worse.

Was there a story his father had told him? He remembered the proverbs and some of the stories… but every region had tales of the savagery of pokemon, romanticizing their being tamed as a bowing to a species or a truce from one side to the other. But…

"A trained pokemon with a savage cry…" Wes brushed the paint fading on his cheeks. He grinned to himself. "Interesting."

So much for that nomadic lifestyle he had been thinking about.


	4. Part Four

_for the prompt dominion_

* * *

Part Four

Wes awoke in the middle of the afternoon. Rui was prostrate beside him on the bed, forehead pressed gently to the mattress. She had her eyes closed as she murmured low, concentration not wavering even as Wes moved to mimic her position. Only when he began to speak, much like she did Rui open her eyes to look at him. The bright blues looked strangely like they were glowing. Though considering the darkness of the room, they very well could be.

Then, the shine faded and she returned to her prayer. He listened to her pray for the continuation of life, soft and strident and merciless.

Wes prayed for his own continuation, for the dream of freedom to become a reality of exploration. He prayed to ho-oh for the resurrection of the heart. He prayed for the glades of celebi's time.

It was unlikely that he would ever see those sights again.

Finally, his knees started to ache and Wes got out of bed. "You want to risk going to a diner?" He asked as Rui followed him, grabbing a towel to head past him to the bathroom. She cracked a smile as she went by.

"I don't think The Buried Train was that bad."

"Cause he grows his own everything artificially," Wes replied dryly, moving towards the healing machine. "Why do you think it costs so much?"

Rui paused before shutting the door. "Still cheaper than Celadon."

Wes had never left Orre. He'd gotten close but never left, stuck staring at cliffs of sand and a boat leaving towards unknown, at least, unknown to him, territory. Then reality and logic had set in and Team Snagem had called him back.

Still, he could think of Phenac and their prices were exorbitant.

"I bet," he replied, for nothing better than say.

If she heard, she didn't answer. Wes merely checked his items and waited, taking everything out of his waistcoat and shaking out the sand.

Then, with nothing to distract him, We approached the healing machine.

Requiem and Nocturne were sleeping peacefully in their pokeballs, and looked better after last night's… debacle.

The unnamed flygon however was wide awake. It looked at him through the translucent upper half, and simply continued to stare. It wasn't interest, it was more of a twisted kind of acknowledgement.

Wes wanted to let it out. How could some random chumps get a singer of the desert into a PokeBall? Requiem would be able to find out, probably. Their pokemon weren't exactly stellar themselves, even if his had been fighting together since he had hatched their rare egg with two babies. They had just blown up Snagem, after all. Someone else had to have been pulling the strings. He would have to check here but first… he had to go and take Rui wherever she was going.

He doubted that she couldn't handle herself, she had more than enough pokemon (he needed to catch up with this). But she had prior obligations. If he helped her do that, he would likely run into more pokemon. It was just a feeling he had, like the sounds of a successful sacrifice. Being with her would bring blessings and curses upon him and he was more than willing to weather them with good payout. The living were creatures of life and pack after all.

Now, back to the flygon.

He plucked the three balls and slid the two to their holster. The flygon he examined, watching it twist to watch him in return. It wasn't hostile still, but it was aware. Aware and intent.

"Dragon," he said softly, and it blinked at him. "I will let you out to fly with us when we leave. If you try to flee, we will ground you. If you stay with us, you will be fed and sheltered."

It continued to stare as if it did not understand. Wes sighed and put it back on the machine.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Rui turned off the shower as quickly as possible. She liked lukewarm showers, not frozen ones. Then again, she was in Orre. She was surprised they had water at all. She would have to ask Wes about it.

Looking around, her face colored.

 _I left my change of clothes in the room._

She didn't particularly mind that too much. Last night he had slept next to her and they'd not cared. They had prayed together and that was only supposed to be in services, not during your own rites. It was a sign of trust to pray with anyone not related to you outside of holy spaces. So she didn't think it was a big deal really.

Still. It was probably awkward.

There was a knock at the door and she tensed, grabbing hold of togekiss' ball.

"Wes?"

He thumped again. "Can I pass you your clothes? They were on the pillow."

Rui exhaled in relief. "Would you?"

She eased the door open and shivered for the brief snap of cold it took him to hand them to her. "I won't be much longer. I can do the rest on the bed."

"Take your time, I'm going to make sure we're not being kicked out for another two hours. Or at all."

Rui squeezed her hair. "We'll be coming back to here then."

He snorted and there was a tiny thud followed by twin mews. "I will be. I don't know about you. That is your decision."

Rui frowned, knowing he couldn't see. "Why?"

He was quiet a moment. "That machine I have is meant for stealing pokemon. I stole it. I will be hunted for that. If I'm going to be hunted, I would rather make them my prey first. And I want to be ready for anything. Also, that flygon is not normal and neither were those guys. They were punks. They'll come back here."

She could imagine the smile on his face as he spoke.

Rui nodded to herself. "Then, let's go to Agate Village after Phenac. The elderly who live there were around before the _Calamity_. They might be able to tell better than us. I know a few people there."

"That sounds wonderful."

He even sounded like he meant it, the strange former smuggler.

"I'll leave the ball here."

"Right."

By the time she left the bathroom, Wes was gone, most of his things with him. Everything that remained was torn and tattered or from yesterday, survivalist at its peak.

The flygon was staring at her. And something about it… didn't seem right.

Rui, hair dripping still, picked up the ball.

Her stomach, empty, considered heaving.

Flygon were not purple, not even shiny flygon. And this one glowed with it.

Rui dropped it to the bed and sat down. She started to pray.

Something was very wrong with that pokemon and Rui had a feeling it wasn't the only one.

"I'm glad I came here," she murmured, reaching into her fanny pack. "If in unofficial capacity."

The silver badge at her waist gleamed in the faulty lighting.


	5. Part Five

_Warnings: Bit of a talking chapter, mentions of pokemon abuse and death, illness, violence, and mythology. - for the prompt -embalm_

* * *

Part Five

Rui sat on the bed, watching Wes' face turn. She had told him everything. There was no point in not doing so, considering they had found themselves waist deep in a conspiracy. Still, silver badge in hand, Rui waited for an answer, heart pounding in her chest.

"You're a member of the international police," Wes finally sounded out.

Rui nodded.

"In unofficial capacity."

Nod.

"And this flygon's aura is purple."

She nodded once more, hand going to her belt.

Wes exhaled. "Do you swear not to arrest me?"

Rui tilted her head, a smile crossing her face. "Of course. It would take too long to do so seeing as I am not here in an official capacity, as I said. And I'd have to admit I let you steal a flygon."

"And possibly more if that aura was purple." Wes hopped to his feet. "They know our faces now, so either we run to the port city and flee or we fight them."

Rui nodded. This was a truth, and her parents had not raised a coward. A reckless mite, but not a coward. "Do you know anything about this purple aura?"

Wes swallowed, looking at the ball with a new expression of disgust. He rolled the ball back onto his covered palms. "I might… it would be an old legend at best, when a celebi, praise to the clear lake, settled here in Orre. But if it's all we have…" He cleared his throat and let Rui sit down.

"When the celebi once called Theolia-" Reflexively, Rui crossed her palms over her chest, much like Wes did himself. One did not invoke legendary names - even incorrect ones - without protection. "-first came to the land, Ho-oh had already begun to hold court. Still furious with Johto over the burning of their tower\, they had begun their religion in terror. They traumatized the humans that had settled here after the colonization of Alola had begun. The Three Beasts terrorized every village they came across… all hope seemed lost.

"When a human loses hope, they always turn to their base cunning. As a result of abuse, many humans began to abuse pokemon in turn. Those who were devout decried them, my people, turned their backs on those such. And their backs were burned."

He motioned to her and without hesitation, they left the motel. He kept his voice low as they went to the motorcycle, it coming back almost shiny. Flygon's pokeball remained in his sleeve. He set to examining it anyway, Rui watching with curiosity. He offered her the tools and she took them, allowing him to continue the tale.

"The pokemon abused by those humans were then turned on the devout. Murderous and focused, those creatures attacked indiscriminately, held back only by silver whistles and silver apricorns by those who commanded them. Accounts from the seers claimed that those pokemon were shrouded in purple and had eyes blank as a coin.

"That was when Theolia arrived. So upset were they, particularly with the rage of the phoenix, they dove to the earth and within hours, the warm garden that would become Agate Village was formed, a great tree surrounding a shining stone. A child was then bequeathed with their flute and paraded out to battle. With eevee at their head, the child was told to play."

"And when the child played, all fell still. Hearts opened, fires doused, and the eevee shone bright with power, a bright pink aura that would not be defined for many centuries. And Ho-oh's anger fell into ashes and they wept. The deaths of three had only struck him the same as the deaths of a million might and now both were held equal. And the beasts wept with them."

And thus Agate VIllage bloomed all the brighter, for it was Theolia who was enraged. All this senseless loss of life, all this suffering due to fear and tyranny, only to be quelled by a bit of kindness. How cruel."

Wes stopped for a moment, struck with a terrible longing, awful tears welling up in his eyes. Rui watched in silence, finishing her work to examine his bike. He was awfully carefree with it… but then, the tale wasn't.

Wes cleared his throat once. Then he did it a second time. After another moment, he gestured weakly to the desert.

"And thus we have today. Theolia cursed the land to slowly die, to dry the water, to limit the rain. To banish Ho-oh from the land. Until the day comes when Ho-oh comes to repent and restore, rather than to fill the earth with ash."

He clambered onto his bike and tested the engine. It gave a satisfying puff of smoke and a hefty thrum. "Good," he said, voice still a croak. "Works like a charm. Thank you for checking."

Rui bobbed her head, hands twisting into knots. "That's not just a story… is it?"

"They told us it was," Wes said, handing her the flygon's pokeball. The purple aura passed harmlessly over her skin but it still felt like a chill. "My relatives told me it was so. However, I don't tell it often and when I do, I feel my flesh licked with flame. Every relative could tell the full story, of the child whose pokemon glowed with pink and perished hours later, of how the soft, thinned fingers turned black with rot, as clear as day as if they could feel it themselves. So I wonder where the truth is in it." He shrugged. "But as you say, the Calamity still happened. I don't have many ideas of what it might be."

"But if that story feels real, and there are records," Rui finished, eyes beginning to gleam with anger and suspicion. "They would be at Agate. And they would coincide with the records from the Calamity."

Wes nodded grimly. "And then we could find the base of what happened with this flygon and how to properly reverse it."

Rui made herself smile and lifted her togekiss' ball as well as the flygon. "To Agate?"

"After Phenac." Wes rubbed his shoulders. "It's a long road to Agate from Pyrite. And there's a mayor in Phenac. We should find out if there are anymore odd pokemon going around the city."

"And put a target on our backs?"

Wes smiled, the expression sharp. "That would be the fun part."


	6. Part Six

_Warnings for racism, classism, PTSD, for the prompt - fidelity._

* * *

Part Six

Rui sucked in a heavy breath as Wes slowly parked the bike inside city limits under the shade of a wall. As she exhaled, Wes watched her visibly deflate with joy. "Real water. Real air."

"We had both of those on the way here," Wes remarked, drawing a crease in his jacket.

She rolled her eyes. "This is the closest to Pallet I've been to in days."

"Where did you come in from?" He examined the flygon now returned to their ball. They stared back, but this time they blinked. Wes would have to count that as a potential for improvement.

These seemed like the pokemon from legends, but they healed so much more slowly. Then again, they healed at all. The stories made it sound immediate from the sound of the song. Then again, there was no song.

Maybe Agate had a library that hinted to it. Or perhaps the song was irrelevant without intent. You could play "Maria's Little Mareep" for all the mystic item cared. He had to hope. He'd not played in years on much of anything except knocking on someone's head.

"I came in from Gateon Port and got flown over by Amelia."

Wes took an extra few seconds to process that. "... Why did you fly from Gateon to the outskirts?"

Rui's cheeks darkened. "Some man tried to grab my pokemon from my belts and I… overreacted."

Wes raised an eyebrow, then crossed his arms in mourning.

She glowered at him and got a laugh. "Show me around, oh mighty native," she grumbled, cheeks flushed.

He bowed to her and offered his hand. Rui took his arm and they ventured inside. People cooed a little as they passed, but beyond that, they were left alone. Small mercies.

"Where does all that water come from?" She asked as they slipped into a crowd. They looked to be school children, much too young for real battles. The one adult with them wiped sweat from their brow, exhaustion lining their faces. Beyond them, there were great big fountains with a few gaunt wingull bathing in them.

"Groundwater," Wes replied and shrugged. "And saltwater imports. The latter were often stolen by Snagem for purification."

Rui stopped walking and he almost ended up tripping as a result. "Snagem?" She snorted. "Who named them and why weren't they arrested for that?" She had heard it at the outskirts. She had just figured it was a joke. A terrible one but still a joke.

"Gonzap," Wes replied with a wave of his free hand. Rui let out a giggle. Wes shrugged. "He's actually rather terrifying in person. Six feet tall, muscles the size of melons, and a tendency towards violence. So either you let yourself be humiliated or let your face get thrown across the desert."

Rui's smile was quickly replaced with a frown. "Sounds like quite a character."

Wes smiled thinly. "He took me in from the sellers, let me perform my rituals even though he thought them a lot of tosh and rot. And I betrayed him. I'm sure I'll have to face that one of these days."

Rui regarded him and he pressed two fingers to his forehead.

"Worry not," he said. "My loyalty is to earth and fire, to my partners and to myself. I will crush him." _For what he's made me do, what he's done, he'll crumble like my brothers' bones beneath the sand._

She laughed and pressed her fingers to her brow. "And I hold you to such a vow unless I see him first."

They laughed together and walked into the Mart. Immediately they separated, shopping for new supplies and simply enjoying the cleaner air. Wes could even admit he didn't like to breathe in the sand all the time after all, quite easily as a matter of fact.

He released Requiem and Nocturne, and the two of them strolled through the aisles, much to the affront of a woman in a silk shirt.

"They are very well-behaved," Wes told with his best charming thieves' smile. "Aren't you both?"

Both the espeon and umbreon mrrowed in agreement, their tails moving like wags until the irritable woman moved away. Wes chuckled and scooped them up.

Then he heard the woman say, "A _sibyl_ is allowed to shop here. With its pets on display. How rancid."

Wes' lip curled.

"Oh come now," said another voice. "Money is money and he has to be fed and watered. The lad seems to be a good fellow and happiness partners are nothing to sneeze at."

"Bunch of money grubbing traveling nutcases, the lot of them."

Wes took his purchases into his arms as the man's voice grew angry.

"Now, see here, Minnie, your family is half of the reason so many have to beg for money. Between you and those laws, you shoved about against Agate and Gateon, of course, they're derelict. It's an insult to the songs, it is!"

"These songs which mean nothing to me, you mean."

"Considering how much you dismiss them, I can't help but believe so!"

The shopkeeper shook his head at him. "Pay her no heed, young dowser," he said, waving a palm gently at the fading white marks on his face. "She came from Unova, she did, and a cult there convinced her to release her pokemon and then called upon a legendary one when she was young. She's always been terrible with this land, but she refuses to leave. It's her grandfather's land."

Wes raised an eyebrow, smile tight. "Is it?"

"So she says." The man rubbed a premier ball then switched to Nocturne's head when the umbreon moved in its place. "Best not to argue with non-believers and angry fellows, I've gathered."

"Aye, truth in reshiram's flame that," Wes said through the bitter taste in his mouth. "Fear not, I've heard that word plenty in my life, mostly towards my parents before me."

"Tis a shame," he said in return and the blue eyes said he meant it.

Poor man probably lived upstairs from this place.

Wes paused, glanced for the woman, and pressed his knuckles to his brow. "May the phoenix bless your house."

The man's eyes went wide before he stuttered out, "may your forest grow far and wide" in return.

Wes smiled a little. It turned more genuine when Requiem churred a greeting at Rui, who was carrying much more than she had a right to.

"Satisfied?" He asked, lips quirked.

She beamed at him when he could see her face. "Very."


	7. Part Seven

_Warning for fantastial racial slurs._

* * *

Part Seven

Orre was a young region, an offshoot from Unovan conquest they say, with old history unrecorded. Even Phenac was young, two and a half centuries to it at best. The mayor's title was therefore inherited and not earned.

Of course, Wes' family could tell of settlers from the ancient days of pokeballs hallowed out from acorns and not powered by steam, when they once made candles with the help of combee and vespiquen, when wicks were sewn from volcarona web. But this was unrecorded and with only small villages. This was before the Calamity. So none of it mattered really.

Besides, Wes didn't have a family to tell him such things anymore. They were quite dead and if they weren't, they would be one day. His parents at least were long buried and sacrificed. They would not have allowed him to go through such tortures.

* * *

They didn't get six steps out of the pokemart before a tall man, one who could probably look into their eyes if Rui sat on his shoulders, walked past. Like Wes, he was covered everywhere but his face. Unlike Wes, his silver hair was wilder. It reminded Rui of shiny arbok. His scarlet eyes flicked to their faces, but then he kept walking. A smirk quirked his mouth as he passed.

"S _ibyl_ ," he murmured and Rui watched Wes' shoulders hunch just a little. "I did not imagine many of your kind were still roaming about."

Wes raised his head. "Not all of us are traitors to our cause," he said, voice a little choked and left hand brushing Nocturne's black fur. "Some tend to the sand while others have left for better pastures. Respect has been earned."

"By the ancestors, perhaps," said the man, smile growing on his pointed face. "By you?"

"That is not for you to decide." And with that, Wes turned away and knocked on the door of the nearest house. It seemed humble but Professor Oak's ranch seemed humble until you actually looked at it, as far as Rui was concerned.

The man chuckled and then walked away.

When he was hopefully out of earshot, Rui hissed. "What was that?"

Wes shook his head. "My guess was that he used to be religious. Then, he turned on whoever he followed. Likely severed much of who gave him a family. He called me that slur as well." He had another suspicion, of course, but he was not going to follow it or speak it aloud, lest it just comes true as paranoia did.

"I've heard that word used in Lavender Tower," Rui mused as the door opened.

"It is high praise in Kanto," Wes allowed. "Here, it is another way to say "backwater savage"."

They went inside, Rui bristling as she walked.

* * *

And promptly fifteen minutes later, the two of them left again. Rui's eye was twitching with the rest of her now.

"That… sleazy, no good, self-absorbed-" Rui was grumbling the words as she gripped her pikachu's ball so tightly Wes wondered if it would crack. "Who did he think he was fooling, he stank!"

"Did he?"

The meeting with the mayor had gone about as well as Wes, realistically, had expected. The man had gotten vaguely concerned about the attack on the flygon (as ground, steel, and rock types here were the toughest creatures to weather the Calamity influenced desert, outside of normal types), but had ultimately dismissed it as bluntly nothing bad. Just petty thieves. Nothing quite as awful as the whispers of another organization that seemed to be taking up most of his time. Therefore, he could not be bothered by him at present.

Rui turned to look at him, looking more amused than annoyed with him. He counted that as a blessing. "Yes! There was some weird, metal and glass smell. It's like the Pokemon Mansion in Cinnabar."

"The haunted one?" Wes had heard of it, of course, from others of the clan who had traveled through Kanto in their days.

"Exact one. It's where Mew gave birth to Mewtwo, they say." Rui rolled her eyes. "Or, more like, where they made Mewtwo."

"Mew as a species haven't given birth in seventeen recorded…" He trailed off and smiled ever so slightly. The only sound, now that they weren't speaking, was the sound of the waterfall. "Rui… want to risk our lives?"

Rui cast her gaze around the silent, empty city. "If I didn't, I'd be gone," she said as men covered every entrance. They dressed each in a singular color, like a rainbow of some kind.

Wes tossed his third pokeball. Despite herself, Rui watched the wave of purple aura as it flew up and down. Was it her imagination or was it weaker than before?

"I need one-hundred-and-twenty-eight seconds after we break through one," he said, breaking through her reverie.

Rui smiled. "That specific? I can do that." She flicked one pokeball out of her sleeve. "Zeno, go make friends."

The pikachu made a face of pure evil (Wes has seen the 'Face of Pure Evil' on Requiem and Nocturne plenty of times to know what it looked like) and scampered off.

Wes took another look and found his target. Then, without a word, he took a running leap and tackled the red-dressed man in the chest. He let out a satisfying sound of pain and toppled over. Then, Wes tossed the flygon's pokeball high and out came the flygon, ignoring the twinging in his arm. It was good to know that these fools, whoever they were, weren't armed in plastic.

He kept running, just in case that whole thing had caused the creature to get angry and lose their mind.

Plus, he had to get to his bike and that meant wheeling around.

Within seconds, there was a horrible screeching cry and the smell of burnt sand. Wes rolled forward, grabbing and releasing Requiem and Nocturne once more.

"Cover me," he told them. "Sacrifice the lot if you must."

His pokemon turned without hesitation to leap on his shoulders, firing behind him in seemingly wild directions. Nocturne screeched laugher as was his joy to do. Throwing his head back, he released a while purple pulse just in front of his mouth.

Well. That was new.

Reaching his bike, Wes set to work, his partners circling the area as two more weirdly suited freaks grew closer.

Wes threw a leg over one sign and turned the ignition on. Instead of the wheel spinning when it roared, as was this old thing's desire more often than not, the wheel turned on its side and let out a hum. Then, it began to float.

Wes smiled much too wide.

"To you, oh phoenix," he whispered.


	8. Part Eight

_Warnings for death and murder and violence_

* * *

Part Eight

Rui had no idea if Wes was actually taking as short of a time as he said he was. She wasn't sure if she cared to be honest. All she cared about was getting the hell out of here and taking some weird armored fellows with her. "Amelia," she whispered to the next ball in her hand. "Air Slash, or the cloudless summer days."

Her togekiss chirruped with discomfort as she flew off to obey and it tore Rui's heart a little. The togepi line was meant for peace and easy days and happiness, not battle and war. They tended to move away from it as the case may have been. But she had been given the togepi in a time of great need, and thus the pokemon had become a master of battle cries.

And in this case, even violence.

The man in blue fell and dropped his pokeballs. Rui snatched one that seemed to glow with purple light and kept running. No hesitation. Wes could use it and being around him seemed to purify the other pokemon, so why not this one?

Then there was a low screech as something dark soared into the air. Rui let out a curse that would make her parents blush. _Flygon, has to be_. "Giratina would be ashamed of what these humans do I bet," she muttered before something, a sharp leaf, whizzed dangerously close to her neck.

Rui, as fitting for a trainer of Pallet, leaped back four feet and whistled for Zeno. Gleefully, her pikachu knocked the bayleef to the ground with a smack of a small orange paw.

Rui felt more than saw a pair of large hands wrench around her small shoulders. She reacted, one fist aimed higher towards the throat. Her knuckles stung but it worked. The strange man let out a curse of pain. She dropped free of him, giving a firm roundhouse kick to the gut. It struck the armor of course, but the more Rui hit it, the more she was starting to suspect it was more for show than it was for actual use. Most people didn't have armor anyway. It was just too much money.

So she took all the satisfaction out of getting him to the ground. Zeno paralyzed them with a nuzzle.

"All right," she muttered, looking around her. "That's two. So, who's-"

Overhead, the flygon let out a screech of rage. Amelia doubled back to Rui, circling her protectively with a soft pink light rushing about her wings.

The pokemon above them shrieked again, raw fury and freedom echoing from its guts as it bellowed out dragonfire. The purple and yellow flames turned sand into glass as one of the men, the one with the bayleef, she thought it was, tried to flee with the ball in hand.

"Zeno, the ball!" This definitely wasn't the same as that machine on Wes' hand, but they could deal with that. "Quick Attack, full speed!"

Zeno bolted to do so, paws scratching in his haste.

"Amelia, dive for him!" Rui ordered, already trying to escape the massive bursts of fire.

Amelia, cloaked in pink energy, was the only thing to save the ball and Zeno himself. The next burst of purple fire caught the fleeing man full in the back.

RIght after the horrible charred smell came the screaming. And it rang in her ears despite there being no echo of such a thing. Dragon fire was always different from regular fire. Even houndoom fires were soft compared to whatever chemicals went into dragon-type attacks.

So whatever pain that poor mook would have gone through with a simple flamethrower was likely much worse now.

I hope he dies quickly.

This wasn't her first death, but it was definitely low on the list of how she wanted to go.

Rui looked around rapidly for Wes but he was still nowhere to be found. His pokemon was rampaging and he was just… missing. Maybe one of the others had gotten him. The only way to tell would be to get past the angry flygon…

 _Ritsuka needs a clear shot and enough time for her… Amelia might not..._

Rui bit her lip and thumbed her lapras' ball, thoughts slowing to a crawl as the smell took over her nose. "For the birds," she murmured, glancing at the city of Phenac. People were starting to peek out, like the fools that they were. She tried to gesture them back.

They seemed to get the message at the crack made in the walls by the flygon's tail, fleeing and screaming into the relative safety of their homes.

"Moonblast!" Rui shouted and Amelia finally lets go of the crackling pink waves. Weakened by the lack of a visible moon, it still slammed the flygon into the same cracked wall.

Rui returned Zeno and let Amelia pick her up. "Find Wes," she ordered. "We've gotta work hard today."

Her togekiss let out a tired chirp, but obeyed, carrying her away from the pokemon as it struggled to rise.

They didn't get far before something roared across the sand. It was similar to a pyroar's triumphant cry but it was getting closer and faster by the second.

Then she saw the bike.

It was more than hovering over the sand. It was flying, a jet high in the air. Wes sat atop it, a blood-chilling smile ruining his face and his pokemon set on the handlebars and firing hearts. They both looked smug as only small pokemon could.

Rui caught herself as flygon let out a responding screech. "Let's go."

They circled down and Rui let herself fall into the sidecar. "Seriously?" she breathed, returning her partner. Zeno's ball trembled and she held the two stolen ones in a trembling palm. "That was way longer than two minutes."

"Apologies," he said with a small grin. "There was a complication. A man. There's not anymore."

"Your flygon killed one," Rui said, grateful her teeth did not chatter.

Wes' eyes narrowed. "And without an invocation." He sighed. "Great. Let's calm him down, shall we? Use Requiem."

Rui nodded and set to work. Requiem was perfectly compliant.

Wes raised his voice to be heard over the twin roars. "Enough, flygon! Desert queen! Enough!"

The flygon turned to them and roared, the irises almost eclipsed by the pupils.

Wes glared right back. "Enough," he called again. "You've done well. But they cannot harm you anymore. Don't be afraid."

"Protect," Rui shouted as the dragon rushed to attack them.

Following their sibling, Nocturne spun its tiny tail and smacked the enemy right on the head.

Flygon fell.

Wes returned them and spun the bike around. "Agate," he said wearily. "Now."

Rui nodded, gripping the sidecar for dear life.


	9. Part Nine

_Warnings: Murder, trauma, references to child trafficking._

* * *

Part Nine

Wes, in any other situation, would not have foregone stealthy for speed, would have hidden them more carefully, risked camping in the sand.

But they couldn't take the risk. Not that Phenac's citizens would be seeing them as heroes, Not that the boss of whoever those were (Cipher? The name rung like bells in his head from somewhere, but he couldn't source exactly where.) wasn't watching from a safe place. Not that they wouldn't be questioned for murder. They would be. It was _his_ flygon that had caused the mess.

His stolen flygon but that wasn't the point. He'd still be in trouble, especially since the news and the citizens were likely going to link him with the same person as who had destroyed Snagem so effectively.

"In retrospect," he muttered to himself. "I should _not_ have been so flashy when I left."

Nocturne mewed in Rui's lap. The girl had stopped shaking now, which was good. She had told him it wasn't her first rodeo and he believed her. All of Gonzap's ranting had told him the International Police when they chose youths, they were trained hard and long. By the time they left the program, they'd seen at least up to ten deaths.

Still. It never got easier, never got better. And as she had told him, dragonfire was a _horrible_ way to go. The flames of a dragon were the closest thing to raw stardust, according to scientists, and there were so many warnings about catching fully grown of the species in a one-man squad that you lost more poachers to them than anyone else.

Which he knew was a good thing but still.

Rui was now petting the Umbreon's fur in gentle circles. If Requiem was jealous, they were too comfortable on his shoulders to give any sign.

"Wes," she finally asked, watching him carefully turn the bike. They were going just fast enough for it to hurt her face. She had a feeling if Wes had his way he'd be going faster and with some way to do it. "Why were you in Snagel or whomever? You said Gonzap didn't share your views at all?"

Wes exhaled. He took a few seconds, struggling to not flat out lie. "Go right for the core of the thing, don't you?"

Rui blushed, much to her favor. Her cheeks were closer to red than her hair. "I… sorry. Just I figure that's important. In case he goes after me, I'd like to know why."

Wes restrained a chuckle. She had him there. Still. It wasn't something you threw around to the general public. He breathed slowly, bringing his bike a little closer to the ground.

"Gonzap bought me from a market. He's had me for ten years. I'd say that's long enough, wouldn't you?"

* * *

Agate was beautiful, even in the night, with the only artificial lights coming from indoors.

It had a real flowing stream, and nature and trees. It had to, of course, having been born at the edges of where Unova ended and Orre began. There was still life there, for the most part.

Rui, long used to the sights of greenery, couldn't help but appreciate it more after days and days of sand. But even her appreciation was clouded with something. DIsappointment? Concern? Pity. She hoped it wasn't pity. Wes, like many of the people she knew, definitely would not appreciate being pitied.

It was something like sympathy, she hoped. Something like anger and guilt. Something that pounded Gonzap into a crater to feed the trapinch digging underneath. Something to pound these people into the dirt.

Everyone always talked about pokemon trafficking, breeding mills, and pokemon abuse. Not what people did to people. It was one of the shadows of Unova, of Castelia Port. One of her supervisors had pursued a group in hiding there rather than Team Plasma and nearly ended up demoted if it weren't for Burgh.

"Rui!"

Rui jumped and turned to Wes. His dark eyes were intent on her, filled with concern. Or annoyance, sometimes they overlapped with each other.

"Sorry," she said, cheeks flushing a tad. "I get lost in thought."

"Been a long day," Wes replied, smiling again in a casual sort of way. He had to understand how unnerving that was, didn't he? "Do you think your relatives have room for two?"

"If you can convince them that you either madly want my hand in courting or that you truly don't, probably?" Rui waved her hand. "They won't be up at this time anyway. Better we just kip down in the center."

Wes' lips pursed as he thought that over. It was an awful tell. She'd have to let him know that when they were in private. Then he smiled a bit. "Sounds fine. I'd rather not disturb some elderly trainers who could fry my face off."

Rui couldn't help it. She cackled at the idea. "My grandpa couldn't even try. He hasn't battled since my dad was a tyke."

Wes' teeth gleamed in the dark. "I'm terrified."

Rui felt her shoulders slump and her expression smooth over. "Maybe we both should be."

They walked across giant tree roots, listening to the sound of the waterfall. Rui couldn't help but smile. It was almost like being back in Kanto.

Almost. Instead of Rocket, they had Cipher. Instead of the mafia, they had, by the looks of things, a set of organized pokemon abusers with benefits.

The two pokeballs that did not belong to her rattled in her bag, trying to be dismissed but unable. That probably explained what happened to the first guy she had snagged one from. Speaking of-

"I grabbed two pokeballs with that same aura as flygon's. I meant to mention that."

"We were a bit busy with flygon's rampage and escaping." Wes merely sounded amused. "I also stole a pokeball. If you could do me the courtesy of checking it, I can snag all three and we can present them inside."

"In the holy area?" Rui's mouth twisted. "Would that be… smart?"

"Likely the only way we could do the creatures much good." He held the door open for them both. If Celebi is really fussed over it, may I be struck down for such a blasphemy. But if Theolia's song could heal a mass, their temple should do some good for a few." He ran his thumb over flygon's ball. "At least bring them peace."

"Bringing them peace and then to fight," Rui shot back with a smile.

"Quite," he agreed.

On the other side of the lobby, someone let out a laugh from their belly. "Oh, my! Someone has a grown a backbone in her years. Makes me feel old."

Wes' eyes narrowed as he crouched in front of the door. Rui moved to examine the room, only to smile wide and throw herself across to a random table.

"Grandpa!"

She was engulfed in the arms of an elderly man dressed in nothing but purple. "Look at you, my dear. The training has done you good."

"I left training two years ago, grandpa," Rui protested. Wes stepped cautiously forward to be introduced. Underneath the bush of his eyebrows, the man peered out at him.

"Oh I don't believe we need an introduction, do we, young man?"

Eagun appeared to be smiling. Something inside Wes doubted that actually meant anything good.


	10. Part Ten

Part Ten

Nocturne and Requiem loved their master.

They followed him into every dark room, every bloody altar, through every sacrifice even when tears mixed with the blood. He was a brave little human who had granted the little ones intelligence, as trainers and their tools did.

That said, they knew full well how much of a fool he was, sleeping by a woman of the blood, as he was. Prayer and devotion and common goals brought about union, often human coupling.

Hence why that man Eagun was having a dreadful time trying to grasp their master at all. Somehow, the societal conventions of humans had escaped their master and he was paying the price.

Zeno laughed beside them. " _Fussy ol' granda's never this excited."_

Requiem rolled their eyes. Nocturne merely stretched. The pikachu was such a child. Must have only been a pikachu for under five years and all of them with the complacency of hunting and killing without being hunted or killed.

Soft. All eevee faced that terror. Unless they were Kalosian eevee, then they merely faced it less because there were more of them. But then they had retreated to the warped place where the human had cursed the land. So they were just as hardened, they were just more clever about it.

" _He must like your boy,"_ Zeno continued as if the others hadn't ignored him. " _Normally, he'd just electrocute him and be done with it."_

Still ignored. The pikachu gave up and settled upon the floor. Good. Brat.

Eventually the old man also did the same, settling in the nearest plastic chair under the pointed stare of the nurse. Only then did Wes creep out from behind Rui, who had sympathetically helped him hide behind her, knowing her grandfather wouldn't follow.

Wes then cleared his throat. "I will not pretend the thoughts had never crossed my mind. However, our main focus is survival and destruction of our enemy, who I am guessing will be whoever Snag'em was spreading Shadow Pokemon for. Our duties have coincided thus far. If she so wishes, I would like to consider her in such a way _after_ these people are put down, so to speak. Or at least further in. We do not know each other well enough for me to declare such a thing."

Rui did not flush to the roots of her hair but she did smile and incline her head in turn, "An offer I will consider," she said easily enough, as if Requiem couldn't see the joy tingling at her skin.

Eagun harrumphed. "So long as you are aware."

"Indeed good sir." Wes straightened. "Now, if possible, I would like to see to my pokemon. They are in a bad way, particularly my flygon here."

Eagun regarded him and the pokeballs. "Indeed. They have the sign of the heretic on them. We shall take them to the cave once you heal their wounds."

"They're Shadow Pokemon, yes," Wes said, mouth twitching. Heretics? Them? No the humans were heretics, the pokemon were just twisted by the humans they were contracted with. Maybe that was what he meant.

"Quite. Now hurry up. We can't waste time with you here. Who knows what they might hav-"

The television started to blare an alarm. "Breaking news. The news station in Phenac has been held up by people naming themselves as Team Cipher. I repeat, the smuggling group known as Team Cipher is holding up the Phenac News Station. This broadcast is coming to you from UNN, the neighboring Unovan news station. Please remain calm as we switch over to their broadcast."

"I… suppose we have even less time than we thought," Eagun finished, exchanging a look with his wife. "Let's deal with your heretics there."

The other two nodded. Rui was pale. Wes had curled his hands into fists.

Requiem and Nocturne called for him and he smiled at them both. As they leaped to his shoulders, He stroked their jaws. "Yes," he said to them. "Yes, we will."

They mewed.

* * *

Rui did not stand idle. Rui sent her pokemon in, let them dance with Wes's shadows in the tunnels. And she herself did not stand idle.

Wes moved like the pokemon of old, like the eevee he had raised. Small, quick, sharp, low center of gravity but high reach. Nimble. Often stealing her knives out of her hands. And yet, predictable because he was thinking she wasn't dangerous.

She slammed her elbow down. He grunted, reached then-

Knee up. Throat weight, grab, throw, pull.

His fingers closed around her sides and he swung his head up and broke free.

Damn it. Move in close to grab but then step side-

"Stop."

They stopped, Wes grinning through bruises and her own smile gleaming in the sunlight from the mouth of the cave. Their pokemon were a little slower but that was what the river was for.

Eagun was making a face at them. "I thought you told me no funny business."

"He's fun to fight, Grandpa, hush yourself," Rui said without turning around. He was already stretching, spinning and twisting to curl himself up right. That was the scariest flexibility she had ever seen in her life. "It's just going to look that way when two whippersnappers have fun."

Wes snorted and Rui elbowed him. "Come on, let's go pray."

She wouldn't admit it out loud, but the small smile he flashed her, a little thing with visible canines, made her flush with gratitude.

They stepped out slowly into the clearing. The stones didn't even creak at their touch. They were strong and held by vines older than even an ancient ninetales. Wes stands, stares up at the great stone that dwarfs everyone, even Eagun himself. Rui sat seiza and bowed her head. The air was full of baby illumise and volbeat learning to fly, their lights shining on and off as they flew about the open space.

Even though there was more brown earth than green growth, Wes was still able to close his eyes and breath in the smell of the ancient spring.

 _Ah,_ he exhaled. Yes. _This is where you must be._

Requiem and Nocturne wound around the two of them and settled at either side.

Wes opened his mouth and began to sing. He didn't have words for it, not for the feral chime of the group meeting as one, not for the feeling of the leaves and branches swaying with the wind, the old grimy muck yanking up beautiful petals, the sting of the rough desert against bare skin, the rare rain and ice chilly and unforgiving.

He didn't have the words for this, but he tried his best to find them. Just as the parents, his people had wished of him once upon a time.

He only hoped it is enough.

Rui suddenly gasped and he opens his eyes to a soft gentle green.

"Oh…" he whispered.

Celebi tittered at him.


	11. Part Eleven

_Warnings: Celebi, grief._

* * *

Part Eleven

Being blessed by the gods was surprisingly anticlimactic. Wes felt no more powerful than he had when he had started, but he did smell the steady mulch of the earth beneath his boots and his skin crackled with the light of the earth. But it felt like nothing.

"That is because humans do not acknowledge the passage of time, often enough."

Celebi's high-pitched thoughts came with candid amusement, like humans were a fun toy that they'd put down to gain life. Knowing the great old ones, that was likely not too far from the truth.

Celebi tittered once more, spinning around him and Rui both in what would equal a happy friendship gesture from likely anything else. It just sent chills down to Wes' legs.

"Quite," they said. "Nice to see humans with some respect nowadays. All these Ciphers and Codes and thugs… no understanding of the precarious condition they've left themselves in. Good spot of ambition is fine, but there's ambition, you wouldn't confuse it with overreach, I have siblings for that? I do, really. Now, I bequeath to you this." Its fingers sparkled and something bone white but clearly made of wood landed in Wes' outstretched palms. "A time flute. I grant to you three songs, to save my precious little siblings. Use them wisely. You'll know when the time is right. One of them awaits you at the destination you are seeking to liberate. Now as for the rest of them-"

"Do you mean the three dogs?" Rui interrupted before she could stop herself.

Celebi regarded her and smiled thinly. "Hello soothsayer, and you're an intelligent one too. Yes, you're quite correct. The three dogs are like awkward little siblings for me. I was there when they died. I was there when they were reborn. I have been there every single time. That, however is my limit. I cannot stop things from happening, only go and hinder the potential consequences. Which does, as a matter of fact, mean I am stopping things from happening, but only if I succeed. That makes it a mite difficult, you understand."

"Oh good," Wes exhaled. "I have to go and fight a god. No pressure."

"Not a lick of any, quite," Celebi agreed with a real smile, and that somehow made it more disturbing. "Now, if you hold still, I can purify your wee babes over there. They'll still be a mess of course, but they won't be shadowy messes. You'll need all the help you can get against Sweeper."

"Sweeper?"

"Suicune, slip of the tongue."

"I sincerely wonder if it was," Wes said as reverently as he could muster. He earned a giggle for his, well Rei assumed it was cheek, and then the world was, once again, awash in green.

When the light faded, a purple cloud hovered over the great obelisk in the center of the clearing, swirling and trembling as though it held a sickening rain and was waiting to burst with it. It left three pokemon staring off at the sky and one great, beautiful dragon weeping into the dirt.

The flygon's wings trembled as they wailed, crying out its anguish for the world to hear and take heed.

Wes did not heed it, staring up at the cloud with a thrum running through his bones, and an ugly liquid

Celebi snapped its tiny fingers and the cloud simply vanished like it had never been. The other pokemon, for their efforts, looked around slowly, then one by one, the pokemon bowed their heads to them. "Aw," it giggled. "How sweet."

And then their little god disappeared, leaving them alone without another word.

The dragon fell silent after a while, staring at the sky like a statue. Wes cast his eyes to it a moment more, then went to inspect the other pokemon he had snagged. They responded with quiet sounds of acquiesce, reacting with at most, nipping his fingers. There wasn't even blood drawn, unfortunately so he couldn't even offer it to the god who had left in thanks. How annoying.

"Rui, will you take a look at these three more closely for me?"

Rui glanced at the dragon, whose wings were starting to droop. Then she nodded. "Take care."

Wes only smiled.

* * *

Phenac was supposed to be lawless.

It was, shall they say, a matter of course. There were so few policemen, so many people, but so few real civilians trying to earn a living. They were stuck protecting those and not their prison. That said, Team Cipher was something else. Most people tried to weasel their way in of course, but that didn't say much,all things considered. People were often weaker than they imagined.

Because of them alone, no one was outside to stop the hovercycle rolling in. They weren't able to stop Wes and Rui from stealing their pokemon.

They weren't able to stop the flygon, whose wings sang to the sand beneath their feet and made it start to crumble.

"Lumis, we need to be able to traverse," Wes called to the dragon, who nodded once. That was about all the pokemon would give. Even now, the creature was proud and broken-hearted, firm in her fear of masters. And while Requiem and Nocturne were powerful, they were still infants compared to the great scarred beast who was following them about.

Truly, without the rage, she was beautiful. Worthy of awe and her own devotion, even. But she is not ready for it and Wes will not force it from her. Still, he returns her.

"Why Lumis?"

Wes grinned at Rui, who finished tying up their latest opponent. "Why not?"

He watched her roll her eyes. "So, tournament or news station?"

If he'd had coins to flip he'd flip but as it is, the blood is pumping in his heart and the shadows are thrumming in his bag.

"Let's give the shadows some sunlight, what do you say?"

Rui met his eyes with a grin of her own. She took his purified pokemon and picked two, to round off her team as some had stayed behind to train.

"They'll be back to normal before we know it."

"And so we pray to the gods and the earth," Wes agreed, and she laughed like the wind and pressed a hand over his.

"Indeed."


End file.
